Bowls: De Jongh misses - again

Karen de Jongh cuddles her father Jos De Jongh after she won the Women's singles bowls 21-7.

Leading Auckland women's bowler Karen de Jongh suffered further heartbreak at the New Zealand Open at Henderson yesterday when she and her experienced pairs partner Bev Crowe narrowly missed making the final.

On Monday de Jongh narrowly failed to make the singles final to defend the title she won last year. And yesterday there was a similar frustrating defeat in the pairs semifinal when she and Crowe were edged by Queenstown's Margaret O'Connor and Christine Buchanan.

The Central Otago pair will now meet Thames' Margaret Henderson and Doreen Garlick in the final, with Henderson and Garlick winning their semifinal over another Auckland composite, Doreen Jensen and Aleenza Levi.

Father and son Neville and Jamie Hill clashed in one of the men's triples quarter-finals, with Neville and his line-up of Ken Fitness and Mike Bradshaw prevailing over the Richard Corry-skipped composite of which Jamie was a member.

The Fitness triple will meet the composite skipped by Counties' Shane McGonagle and the other semi-finalists will be the John McConnell-skipped Pauanui line-up and the Balmoral triple of John James, which won its quarter-final over Takapuna's Bob Howitt.

In the men's pairs, last year's champions Rob Ashton and Barclay Lee continued to make significant progress in their quest to defend their title. Though extended by Graham Skellern and James Williams, playing under the Carlton-Cornwall banner, 17-16, they advanced to today's semi-finals where they will meet a surprise packet, Ian Little and Wayne Glogoski, from a small North Harbour club, Beachhaven.

Wellingtonians Corry and Richard Martin made the other semifinal, where they will clash with the winner of the remaining quarter-final between an Auckland composite of Steve Cox and Neil Fisher and a South Island composite of Canterbury's Alvin Gardiner and Central Otago's Pat Houlahan.

Waikato's Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Lynda Bennett added to her impressive record, teaming with Peter Wylie and Mark Mitchell who beat Carolyn Crawford, Bruce Wakefield and Pam Walker 17-4 in the disabled triples.

Crawford and Walker gained some consolation by winning the disabled pairs in a close tussle with Graham Shaw and Peter Gardner.